AN EXTREME ACT OF KINDNESS IS DELIVERED TO THE DOORSTEP OF EIGHT CHILDREN WHO LOST THEIR PARENTS WITHIN 16 DAYS OF EACH OTHER, ON THE SEASON FINALE OF “EXTREME MAKEOVER: HOME EDITION,” MAY 23 ON ABC

Local Community of Livermore, California, Lends Their Unflagging Support, and
Ty and the Designers Put on a Show to Help Raise Money for the Family

“Cadigan-Scott Family” – When Diane and Mark Cadigan passed away within 16 days of each other, the couple left behind eight children, ages 12 to 23, to make their own way in the world. To help ease some of this Livermore, California family’s grief and relieve the stress of living in a deteriorating house, the design team will rip up and tear down practically everything to make way for a beautiful, dramatically different house, courtesy of “Extreme Makeover: Home Edition,” on the season finale episode, SUNDAY, MAY 23 (8:00-9:00 p.m., ET), on the ABC Television Network.

In June 2003 Diane died as a result of heart problems. Mark died 16 days later of a heart attack. Their eight kids were left to grieve a double, unbelievable loss. The two oldest siblings moved back home and took legal guardianship of their brothers and sisters, which enabled the family to stay together. Otherwise the kids would have ended up in foster care.

To assist the Cadigan-Scott family in this new phase of their lives, community support was marshaled from local police officers, firefighters, teachers, church members, business owners and others who wanted to help the kids fix up their run-down, 1400-square-foot house. But money was scarce. During the week that the home was being made over by “Extreme Makeover: Home Edition,” Ty Pennington performed a free one-man concert where he played and sang guitar. The other design team members and production crew also got up on stage to join in the fun. The community came out in force for the show and raised thousands of dollars that are being used to help the family in a variety of ways.

One of the design team’s priorities was to give the family more space -- since the kids all share a single bathroom. They also hope to create a bigger kitchen and a place where they can all be together, since there’s no family room. In a race against time on a project that would ordinarily take four months, the designers, contractors and 100-plus workers and volunteers totally transformed the Cadigan-Scott house in just seven days -- where every single room, plus the exterior and landscaping, was made over.

Meanwhile, the family – Jennifer, 23, Janice, 21, Daniel, 20, Kelly, 20, Rachel, 18, Jackie, 16, Dolly, 14 and twelve-year-old Teresa spent a week at Disney World. On the day of the “reveal,” over 3000 people lined the streets to cheer on the Cadigan-Scotts.

The design team for this episode of “Extreme Makeover: Home Edition” features team leader Ty Pennington, Paul DiMeo, Tracy Hutson, Michael Moloney, Constance Ramos and Preston Sharp. The program is produced by Endemol USA, a division of Endemol Holding. The series is executive produced by Tom Forman and Craig Armstrong. This program carries a TV-PG parental guideline.

The local news was there when the family came home, and showed some of the reactions of the family - not enough to even warrant a spoiler warning. The crowd waited for hours out in the 100-degree heat for the final reveal. Whew!

Oh ABC what are you doing to me?
I'm so looking forward to this. They sure find some really good families to help. These people have the best jobs in the world. Change the world of really deserving people. This show has become one of my faves, and the fact that Ty is part of it has nothing to do with it!

{{edited a bit, cuz as I read this website a bit more, I realized I may have added some "spoiler" info into my post and wanted to clear it out so I don't look like an idiot}}

I'm SO excited to watch this episode! It's near and dear to me. I reside in Livermore and we know two of the girls in this family. I can attest to how lovely and amazing this family is, and how deserving they were of this wonderful gift. They'd been through so much. They're hard-working kids. Our community really pulled together to help these kids, and I can't tell you how proud I am of that.

I have two teenagers (13 and 14) and I brought them to the house every single day while they were working on it. It was a blast! So much fun to watch the behind-the-scenes hustle and bustle day to day. I took lots of pictures .... and of course quite a few of them are of Ty. The designers were so friendly and always made an effort to say hello and give a little wave to the crowd. ((Little gossip .... we could see into the bus windows from afar, and the designers are apparently American Idol fans. They were watching American Idol and didn't exit the bus until the show was over))

The day of the reveal, we stood there for four hours in almost 100 degree heat to see the kids come home. The fire department showed up with their hoses and started spraying us with water. It felt wonderful! We were drained and sunburned, but it was really worth it. To see the kids bolt out of the car and up to the house .... well, there wasn't a dry eye in the crowd! It took a long time, though, because they have to stop and reset each shot; running out of the limo, designers coming out of the house, then kids running into the house .... all tolled, probably an hour!

My husband and I were sent on a couple errands by the crew. We purchased videotapes ...... {edited by me .... spoiler info}

If anyone would like a sneak peek of the outside of the house, I'd love to post a photo or two! Just let me know. (I hope that's allowed.)

Love the site! I've got lots of reading to do now.

Last edited by Rumpshaker; 05-10-2004 at 03:43 PM.
Reason: I think I was spoiling

Rump, welcome to the site. Please feel free to share any photos or stories you like, just put them in a new thread with "*spoiler*" in the title somewhere. Something like "Sneak peek at the Cadigan House *Spoilers*".

Awww, thanks so much for the kind welcome, guys! Well, I attempted to put a few pics up here. I did what you suggested, John, and started a spoiler thread. Hope I did it correctly. My pics aren't great. A bit grainy. Cheap digital camera. I've gotta cruise by the house (it's about two miles away) and take an updated pic! It's beautiful .... different, but beautiful.

Apparently, Preston was there for a solid week afterwards continuing work around the house. The EM crew supposedly paid some neighbors around $500 for their troubles (the street was closed for a week solid, with massive construction trucks going in and out all day and all night) and most neighbors are getting new lawns (they got trampled from the crowds). Boy, they seem to have everything covered on that show! They're such good people and I just adore what they do! But to be so considerate to the neighborhood, too, well that's just amazing!